Modi Dhubri rally called off

BIJOY KR SHARMA

Narendra Modi waves to supporters during an election campaign rally at Erode in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. (PTI)

Dhubri, April 17: Fans and followers of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi were disappointed following the cancellation of a poll rally scheduled to be held on April 19 at Dhubri Sports Complex on the outskirts of the town.

Modi’s Dhubri rally was initially slated to be held today along with his rallies at Bongaigaon, Mangaldoi and Nagaon but was re-scheduled to April 19.

The other three rallies, however, will be held on Saturday.

The BJP in-charge of Assam, Sudhanshu Mittal, said the Dhubri rally was cancelled because of time constraint.

He said apart from the three rallies in Assam, Modi will also address poll rallies in Bihar on Saturday, the reason why they could not squeeze in the Dhubri rally.

Some party insiders in Guwahati said since one of the four proposed rallies of Modi in Assam had to be cancelled, the party decided on Dhubri because there the BJP does not have much of a chance as the AIUDF appears to have a distinct edge.

When brisk preparations were on to welcome Modi at Dhubri by the party’s district unit and to make the rally a grand success, a message from the state BJP about cancellation of the rally dampened the spirit of Modi’s followers and party workers.

Mukesh Kumar Singh, a die-hard fan of Modi in Dhubri town, said his followers were demoralised because of it.

“We are disappointed as the rally would have given us an opportunity to get a glimpse of our favourite leader and hear him speak. We have no idea why the rally was cancelled,” Singh said.

Himangshu Mandal, another staunch BJP follower, resented the move.

“People were very enthusiastic about the rally,” Mandal said with regret.

BJP Dhubri town committee president Sushanta Kar said they were upbeat about the rally and were expecting more than 1.5 lakh people at the venue.

“But our state unit informed us that the poll rally had to be cancelled because of some technical reasons. Now, since the rally has been cancelled, we have started our poll campaign with more vigour to lift the morale of our party workers and followers,” Kar said.